Urea plant faces forced closure over gas supply
One of New Zealand’s largest fertiliser plants could be forced to shut down for four months as uncertainty looms over gas supply.
Ballance Farm Nutrients general manager for customers, Jason Minkhorst, spent much of last week driving around the two provinces to get a first-hand look at effects of the Otago floods and ongoing wet in Southland.
He says he saw significant flooding on the Taieri Plains with large areas of pasture under water and says it’s hard to imagine how farmers are coping milking cows and dealing with new-born lambs.
“But moving into Southland there is clearly a serious problem with the availability of feed and farmers have been doing it tough there for some time. I have been talking to farmers and they are saying these are some of the worst conditions they have ever faced,” he told Dairy News.
Minkhorst says Ballance is now putting together a package that will help them though this bad patch.
The ANZ Bank has also put up its hand to help farmers, with Lorraine Mapu, managing director of business and agri, saying the current economic environment means many farmers are already doing it tough, and this extreme weather comes at a critical period on the farm – during calving and lambing.
She says they have got staff on the road talking with and visiting farmers in some of the worse affected areas, to get a better idea of the extent of the damage.
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“As things dry out and the clean-up starts, we want to reassure our farming customers that the bank is here to work with them in the days and months ahead,” she says.
Westpac NZ managing director of consumer banking and wealth, Helen Ryder, says the bank is on standby to provide emergency financial support, but its top priority is the safety of customers and staff.
Ryder says it is making targeted assistance available for business and farming customers, subject to approval including temporary overdraft facilities and the ability to defer loan repayments or moving to interest only, to help ease some financial pressure.
She says help could include suspension of principal payments on loans for up to three months, deferred payment on credit cards for up to three months and a temporary overdraft facility.
